Baseball is a game like no other. In most professional sports, things are a little more obvious. Top draft picks become superstars, the best team usually wins, and entire championships don’t usually come down to how a guy wearing a mask calls a spinning ball moving at 100+ mph through space. In baseball, players are unpredictable. Teams of professional scouts attempt to project players’ future prospects, and in the end, there is a whole lot of randomness.
Earning a reputation for identifying, developing, and unlocking baseball talent is an exceptional achievement. Now go out and do it again. Randomness is a bitch. If you can beat that, then you are a true master.
Poker is a very random game. It’s 100% luck who gets dealt the best hand. But there is a guy who has won 17 World Championships of Poker. And another guy who has won 11. Chess has no randomness at all. Masters of random games are a different kind of master than masters of non-random games. Masters of chess are linear geniuses. Masters of random games are Rain Man savant types.
I’m not sure if my next line should be “meet Andrew Friedman” or “meet the Dodgers braintrust”. Pick the one you like.
I will now present my case.
2025 July record pitching for Dayton, Level High-A
4 starts, 0-3 record, 17.2 innings, 14 earned runs, .286 avg. against
2025 August record pitching for Great Lakes: Level High-A
5 starts, 4-0 record, 29 innings, 5 earned runs, .192 avg. against
2025 record with Portland, Level: Double-A
211 ABs, .227/.305/.412., strikeout percentage: 20.7 percent
2025 record with Tulsa, Level: Double-A
84 ABs, .286/.404/.452, strikeout percentage: 10.6 percent
2025 record with Portland, Level: Double-A
116 ABs, .207/.319/.267, 19 walks, 7 RBIs
2025 record with Tulsa, Level: Double-A
82 ABs, .232/.402/.366, 21 walks, 17 RBIs
Other minor league players acquired in trades this season
Charles Davalan (acquired with the draft pick received in the Gavin Lux trade)
The totality traded away to acquire the seven above players:
Dustin May (on an expiring contract)
We have reached a verdict.
The Dodgers are the Masters of Baseball.